ACTUALITY OF MARIATEGUI'S THOUGHT

[Luis Quispe <lquispe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

            THE ACTUALITY OF MARIATEGUI'S THOUGHT

In the 1960's the thinking of Mariategui went on establishing
itself ever more firmly; however in that period, as is
now, the interest for Mariategui grows, inside and outside the
country. At the same time, we see a denial of Mariategui on two
levels: Some attack and deny the Marxist bases of Mariategui
thinking, and others deny its actuality.  Those questioning its
Marxist bases contend the ideological base sustaining it is
irrational idealism and the concepts predominating in western
philosophical thought, mainly European.  Once Mariategui's theses
about Marxist philosophy, politics economics and scientific
socialism are set forth, these observations need not be analyzed
any further; it suffices to reiterate that the Marxist character
of the bases of Mariategui are sufficiently clear, and point out
that those impugning it have a the bottom a central argument: The
impossibility for Marxism to develop in a country with few
industrial workers.  This starting point uncovers an unacceptable
mechanicist position; for Marxism to appear in a world level, the
development of the working class to the level it had attained in
Europe by the mid 19th century was needed, and on that material
base Marx and Engels created Marxism, which from that point on
develops vigorously and spreads itself through the five
continents.  The revolutionaries of the backwards countries,
where there are immense masses of peasants and proportionally a
reduced industrial working class, found in Marxism an instrument
to guide their actions and taking its principles they fused them
with specific revolutionary conditions; in that way, Marxism-
Leninism fused with the concrete conditions of the movements of
national liberation and their democratic revolutions.
Consequently shown incontrovertibly by Mao Tse Tung Thought, as
developed Marxism.

Well then,  a similar case is that of the founder of the
Communist Party, Mariategui also applied Marxism-Leninism to a
semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, even more, he analyzed
similar countries in Latin America; and participating directly in
the class struggle in our country he was able to develop himself
as a Marxist and to apply the universal principles creatively,
therefore, there is a similarity between many of his ideas and
Mao's proposals.  Facts prove, as the years passed, the Marxist
essence of Mariategui's thought.  What happens is that, those not
on their guard, get disoriented by the own language he uses, to
which they are not familiar with, which is compounded by ignoring
the conditions in our Latin America and, what is more basic, by
starting off from positions which are contrary to Marxism.

Those questioning the actuality of Mariategui allege that, while
he indeed was a Marxist and a notable thinker, his positions were
left behind 40 years ago. These people forget that later studies
and researches do not deny but quite the contrary confirm
Mariategui's theses; and, what is more important, that not having
completed the national-bourgeois revolution and much less
initiated the proletarian one, Mariategui's thought and his Road,
his general political line of the Peruvian Revolution continue to
be fully current as shown, precisely, by the four decades elapsed
and even more by the need to Retake His Roads born amidst the
great struggles of the 1960's decade and the current class
struggle.

[Extract of the document "Let's Retaque Mariategui and
Reconstitute his Party," published on October of 1975 by Red Flag
Editions (Ediciones Bandera Roja), organ of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Peru. Translated by Peru People's
Movement, 1996.]

Read the entire document in the PCP WEB PAGE:
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp
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